In Like Flynn: A Rape Culture Limerick
It’s been, I suppose, at least twenty years since the last time I heard someone say “and then you’re in like Flynn!” It’s positive enthusiastic triumphant slang, or used to be; somewhat akin to the British/Cockney “…and Bob’s your uncle!” It means, or it used to mean, that you were successful, you were across the finish line, that you had got it made. By the time I first heard it as a teenage boy, it had lost much of its sexual connotations, and you could say it in front of church ladies or your mother. But in its origins, it was explicitly sexual, referencing legendary film actor Errol Flynn’s reputation as a seducer, cocksman, and accused rapist. (Various learned linguists cited by the notorious killjoys of Wikipedia are said to consider this a folk etymology, but I put a bit more faith in The Straight Dope, which seems to support it.)
That’s only one of the things that makes this bawdy limerick from the December 1967 Rogue magazine a bit obscure:
In the interest of furthering sin
One squiffles a dolly with gin.
When squiffled, all vice
Looks alluring and nice
And the next thing, you’re in like E. Flynn!
Well, now, where’s my 20th-Century Dictionary Of American Vice?
I have never heard the word “squiffled” but it seems clear enough in context: pleasantly drunk, tiddly, amenable to suggestion, incapable of meaningful consent. Sadly I don’t actually possess any comprehensive dictionary of vice, and no online dictionary whatsoever that I can find will admit to having heard of the word “squiffled” either. But the context is clear, as is this uncharitable review of Hunter S. Thompson that describes him as “illegally squiffled at every inconvenient moment.” That’s a good enough citation for me!
Squiffles, then, would be the parallel verb form, although its appearances in the search engines are fewer-to-none in comparison to the half-dozen instances of “squiffled” (as drunk) that I could find.
The chair will now entertain motions to the effect that this has been more textual analysis than can be justified by the merit of the material…
Update: Although neither “to squiffle” (verb) or “squiffled” (adjective) is listed, the rather marvelous Dictionary of contemporary slang: with more than 5,000 racy and raffish colloquial expressions–from America, Great Britain, Australia, the Caribbean, and other English-speaking places lists the clearly-related words “squiffy” (lighthearted adjective meaning drunk or inebriated) and “squiff” (noun, meaning a drunkard). The noun form is listed as Australian in origin, and see one comment below, similar.
Similar Sex Blogging:
Shorter URL for sharing: http://www.erosblog.com/?p=23280
I presume a variant of squiffy, as in skew whiff… Originally a weaving term, but in Br Eng squiffy = tipsy.
‘Squiffed’ Is definitely old Australian slang for inebriated, perhaps not completely drunk, and would fit with Errol Flynn, who hailed from Tasmania, if memory serves me well. In like Flynn was absolutely sexual in meaning, denoting gleeful penetration!
The term may have come to the USA via P. G. Wodehouse. One of his books – The Indiscretions of Archie, published in the USA in 1921 – features a character nicknamed Squiffy for his drinking habits
Incidentally, “Bob’s your uncle!” probably wasn’t Cockney. It was applied to the late-Victorian Prime Minister Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury, who appointed his relatives as members of the Cabinet.
Wee Jim, I made no effort to research that one; I merely repeated something I had been told. The slash I used between British and Cockney was supposed to gesture at my unwillingness to commit to the more precise designator, but I freely concede it’s less than clear. Thanks for the extra bit of history there!